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Proj«ot«d  Cables  —  _. 


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Mexican  Telegraph  Company 

Central  and  South  American 
Telegraph  Company 

66  BROADWAY 
NEW  YORK 


SRLt 

yRL 


JAMES  A.  SCRYMSER 


(Editorial  from  New  York  Herald,  January  14,  1917.) 

LINKING  UP  THE  AMERICAS 

Another  romance  of  American  business  enterprise — 
■a  romance  that  far  excels  any  dream  of  fiction  because  its 
happy  climax  is  written  m  accomplishment — is  told  in  an 
article  published  in  to-day's  "Herald"  recounting  the 
struggle  of  nearly  half  a  century  to  extend  American  cable 
communication  to  Brazil  and  by  so  doing  forge  the  last 
link  in  a  cable  and  land  line  chain  of  communication  be- 
tween this  country  and  the  great  republics  of  South 
America.  The  recent  decision  of  the  highest  court  of 
Brazil  granting  to  the  Central  and  South  American  Tele- 
graph Company  the  right  to  extend  its  lines  from  Buenos 
Ayres  to  Santos  and  Rio  de  Janeiro,  despite  the  hard  fight 
made  by  the  Western  Telegraph  Company  to  retain  a 
monopoly  it  had  long  enjoyed,  opens  the  way  to  direct 
communication  zmth  the  cities  of  Brazil  over  American 
owned  lines. 

It  is  a  happy  circumstance  that  Mr.  James  A. 
Scrymser,  who  began  the  fight  for  American  owned  com- 
munication betzveen  the  republics  of  this  hemisphere, 
should  see  with  his  own  eyes  this  fruition  of  his  efforts. 
Documents  now  for  the  first  time  published  tell  of  the  keen 
interest  in  and  hearty  support  of  Mr.  Scrymser's  enter- 
prise shozvn  by  every  Secretary  of  State  from  Mr.  Seward 
to  the  present  day.  Mr.  Scrymser  himself  tells  the 
"Herald"  the  story  of  the  long  contest,  which  in  a  sense 
has  been  only  an  incident  in  the  development  of  American 
cables,  which  began  zvith  his  creation  of  American  cable 
communication  zvith  Cuba.  The  Mexican  Telegraph  Com- 
pany and  the  Central  and  South  American  Telegraph 
Company,  both  of  which  corporations  have  grown  to  be 
great  under  his. presidency,  now  operate  more  than  twenty 
thousand  miles  of  cable  and  land  lines.  The  nezv  link 
between  Argentina  and  Brazil  zvill  add  another  2,500 
miles. 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/afterfortyeightyOOnewyiala 


SR13F    . 


(From  New  York  Herald,  January  14,    1917.) 


AFTER  FORTY-EIGHT   YEARS  FIGHT 

AMERICAN  CABLES  WILL  CONNECT 

NATION  WITH  BRAZIL 


JAMES  A.  SCRYMSER'S  EFFORTS  OF  LIFETIME 
ARE  SUCCESSFUL 


BRITISH  COMPANY  LONG 
BLOCKED  WAY 


VICTORY  FINALLY  IS  WON  IN  A  CONTEST 

BEFORE  SOUTH  AMERICAN 

TRIBUNAL 

After  more  than  forty-eight  years  of  persistent  and  un- 
tiring effort  on  the  part  of  James  A,  Scrymser,  president  of 
the  Mexican  Telegraph  Company  and  the  Central  and  South 
American  Telegraph  Company,  cable  communication  between 
the  United  States  and  Brazil  over  all  American-owned  cables 
and  land  wires  is  assured  and  will  be  an  accomplished  fact  in 
the  near  future.  Mr.  Scrymser  has  been  supported  loyally 
by  his  associates  in  his  struggle  of  nearly  half  a  century  to 
accomplish  the  task  he  set  himself,  but  he  always  has  been  the 
leader  in  the  fight. 

Heretofore  cable  communication  over  all  American-owned 
lines  between  the  United  States  and  Brazil  has  been  impos- 
sible because  of  certain  exclusive  cable  concessions  granted 
many  years  ago  by  the  Brazilian  Government  to  British  com- 
panies. It  is  true  that  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Com- 
pany when  controlled  by  Jay  Gould  obtained  a  cable  conces- 
sion from  Brazil,  but,  owing  to  the  British  cable  monopoly 


there,  he  abandoned  the  scheme,  as  a  cable,  if  laid,  would  have 
been  obliged  to  connect  exclusively  with  the  Brazilian  Gov- 
ernment land  lines,  and  the  latter  could  not  compete  success- 
fully with  the  British-owned  cables,  which  connected  all  of 
the  coast  cities  of  Brazil.  Therefore,  the  only  Brazilian 
telegraph  traffic  that  could  have  been  obtained  by  the  Western 
Union  would  have  been  that  of  the  town,  where  its  cables 
landed  in  Brazil. 

CONCESSION  BLOCKS  LINE 

The  Brazilian  Submarine  Telegraph  Company — after- 
ward the  Western  Telegraph  Company — a  British  company, 
obtained  in  March,  1870,  an  exclusive  right  to  the  entire 
coast  of  Brazil  for  cables  from  the  north  for  a  period  of  sixty 
years.  That  precluded  any  American-owned  lines  from  the 
United  States  or  the  West  Indies  or  Mexico  from  making  a 
Brazilian  extension  and  prevented  the  Mexican  Telegraph 
Company  from  getting  there. 

When,  however,  the  Central  and  South  American  Tele- 
graph Company  established  its  present  "via  Colon"  cable 
route  from  New  York  to  Va:lparaiso,  Chile,  along  the  Pacific 
coast  of  South  America,  and  then  acquired  its  own  land  lines 
across  the  Andes  to  Buenos  Ayres,  Argentina,  Mr,  Scrymser 
saw  the  way  opened  at  last  to  get  to  Brazil  with  his  lines. 

Mr.  Scrymser  could  not  get  there  from  the  north  because 
the  British  company  owned  that  privilege  exclusively,  but 
he  could  get  there  from  the  south — from  Buenos  Ayres.  Ac- 
cordingly, he  put  in  a  formal  application  to  the  Brazilian 
government  to  lay  cables  from  the  south  and  establish 
connections  at  Santos  and  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Brazil.  In  other 
words,  having  run  up  against  a  stone  wall  which  he  could 
not  get  over,  he  determined  to  go  around  it  and  so  reach  the 
same  objective. 


The  Western  Telegraph  Company,  which  Mr.  Scrymser 
had  been  fighting  unsuccessfully  but  with  never  failing 
energy  since  1868  in  his  efforts  to  get  into  Brazil  with  his 
cables,  immediately  made  every  effort  to  prevent  the  entrance 
of  his  lines  from  the  south.  The  British  company  appealed 
to  the  courts  of  Brazil  and  a  long  legal  battle  began.  Now 
it  is  practically  at  an  end. 

MR.  SCRYMSER'S  LETTER 

A  final  and  complete  victory  for  the  American  company 
is  a  foregone  conclusion,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  following 
correspondence  now  published  for  the  first  time : — 

CENTRAL  &  SOUTH  AMERICAN  TELEGRAPH  COMPANY 

66  BROADWAY 

JAMES     A.     SCRYMSER 

PRCSIOBNT 

''New  York,  Nov.  24,  19 16. 
"Hon.  Robert  Lansing, 
"Secretary  of  State, 

"Department  of  State, 
"Washington,  D.  C. 

"Sir — It  affords  me  great  pleasure  to  be  able  to  forward 
to  you  the  following  copy  of  a  telegram  which  has  just  been 
received  from  our  agent  in  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Mr.  Carney: — 

"  'Rio  de  Janeiro,  Nov.  22,  1916. 
"  'Scrymser,  New  York  : — 

"  'I  am  delighted  to  report  that  Supreme  Court  has 
rendered  judgment  in  our  favor.  Ten  votes  against  one. 
Western  Telegraph  Company  will  probably  appeal  for 
second  hearing,  but  owing  to  our  large  majority  we  have 
nothing  to  be  afraid  of.  Carney.' 

"And  likewise  the  following  cablegram  received  from 
Ambassador  Morgan,  en  route  to  New  York : — 


"  'Los  Andes,  Nov.  24,  1916. 
"  'Scrymser,  New  York : — 

"  'Please  accept  congratulations  on  favorable  decision 
of  Brazilian  Supreme  Court.  Shall  reach  New  York  end 
December.  Edwin  Morgan.' 

"This  is  the  culmination  of  over  forty-eight  years'  work, 
begun  in  1868,  when  the  Honorable  William  H.  Seward  was 
Secretary  of  State.  I  quote  from  his  letter  of  instructions 
to  Minister  Webb: — 

"  'Department  of  State, 
"  'Washington,  March  30,  1868 

"  'James  Watson  Webb,  Esq.,  &c.,  &c., 
"  'Rio  de  Janeiro  : — 

"  'I  herewith  enclose  to  you  a  copy  of  a  communi- 
cation addressed  to  this  department  by  James  A.  Scrym- 
ser,  Esq.,  projector  and  director  of  the  hiternational 
Ocean  Telegraph  Company,  desiring  to  obtain  aid  and 
authority  from  the  Brazilian  government  to  extend 
the  lines  of  his  company  over  the  West  India  Islands 
to  a  convenient  point  on  the  coast  of  Brazil. 

"  'You  are  instructed  to  give  such  assistance  as  may 
be  in  your  power  toward  effecting  the  accomplishment  of 
the  object  in  view. 

"  'I  am,   sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

"  'W.  H.  SEWARD.' 

"In  every  administration  since,  the  department  has 
adopted  Mr.  Seward's  policy,  and,  as  you  know,  very  largely 
through  your  good  offices,  the  company  was  able  to  secure 
recently  a  contract  from  Brazil  permitting  the  extension  of 
our  cables  (from  Buenos  Ayres)  to  the  cities  of  Santos  and 
Rio  de  Janeiro,  in  Brazil.  As  you  also  know,  the  granting 
of  this  contract  was  enjoined  by  the  Western  Telegraph 
Company,  an  English  corporation.  It  is  upon  the  latter 
suit  of  injunction  the  Supreme  Coiu't  of  Brazil  has  rendered 
a  decision  in  favor  of  this  company. 


"I  am  sure  that  the  importance  of  an  American-owned 
cable  from  the  United  States  to  Brazil  is  fully  realized  by 
both  the  United  States  government  and  the  Brazilian  gov- 
ernment. As  I  have  previously  pointed  out,  such  a  cable 
connection  will  be  of  inestimable  value  to  the  commercial 
interests  of  both  countries  and  of  vital  importance  to  the 
government  of  the  United  States,  which  is  now  unable  to 
communicate  with  its  representatives  in  Brazil,  excepting 
through  foreign  owned  lines. 

"In  the  name  of  the  Central  and  South  American  Tele- 
graph Company,  I  beg  to  thank  you,  Mr.  Secretary,  for  the 
loyal  support  which  you  have  given  to  this  project  and  to 
again  assure  you  of  our  sincere  appreciation  of  your  good 
offices,  which  you  have  so  courteously  extended  in  the  past. 

"I  respectfully  ask  that  you  will  thank  the"  American 
Ambassadors  to  Brazil  and  Argentina  for  the  able  support 
which  they  have  so  generously  rendered. 

"1  will  keep  you  advised  of  further  developments  in  this 
connection. 

"With  renewed  thanks,  I  am,  dear  sir, 

"Very  respectfully  yours, 

"JAMES  A.  SCRYMSER, 

"President." 

IN  FIGHT  FROM  START 

The  fight  of  nearly  half  a  century  to  get  to  Brazil  re- 
ceived the  diplomatic  support  of  the  following  Secretaries 
of  State: — William  H.  Seward,  Thomas  F.  Bayard,  James 
G.  Blaine,  Frederick  T.  Frelinghuysen,  John  Hay,  Elihu 
Root,  Philander  C.  Knox,  William  J.  Bryan  and  Robert  Lan- 
sing. Mr.  Scrymser  was  in  it  from  start  to  finish.  He  is 
a  fighter.     He  has  a  record  of  always  getting  what  he  goes 


after,  regardless  of  difficulties  in  the  way.  He  had  absolutely 
nothing  but  his  nerve,  optimism  and  self-reliance  when 
he  started  in  1865  to  acquire  a  concession  from  Spain  to  lay 
a  submarine  cable  between  Florida  and  Cuba  and  the  West 
Indies,  but  he  succeeded  and  laid  the  cable,  the  first  of  his 
many  successful  ventures. 

Mr.  Scrymser  was  born  in  New  York  in  1839.  He  was 
educated  at  College  Hill  Seminary,  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y. 
When  he  was  twenty-two  years  old  he  enlisted  in  the  Twelfth 
New  York  Volunteers,  April  20,  1861,  and  he  served  through- 
out the  civil  war,  being  in  all  the  battles  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  until  June,  1864.  He  became  a  captain  and  was  an 
aid  de  camp  on  the  staff  of  Major  General  William  F.  Smith. 

At  the.  close  of  the  war  Captain  Scrymser  found  him- 
self in  New  York  with  no  business  or  profession  and  unde- 
cided what  he  should  undertake  to  make  a  living. 

*'I  had  just  $144  at  that  time,"  said  Mr.  Scrymser  to  me 
the  other  day,  when  I  called  upon  him  at  his  residence  in 
Gramercy  Park,  and  asked  him  for  reminiscences  and  de- 
tails about  the  way  he  began  laying  cables.  "I  had  many 
good  friends,  too,"  he  added,  "and  it  was  owing  to  a  conver- 
sation with  one  of  them,  Mr.  Alfred  Pell,  that  I  first  turned 
my  attention  to  submarine  cables.     That  was  in  May,  1865. 

DROPS  TOUR  TO  PUSH  PROJECT 

"Mr.  Pell  and  I  had  started  to  go  on  a  tramping  tour 
through  the  mountains  of  Western  Massachusetts.  We 
started  the  last  Monday  in  May,  but  we  never  got  beyond 
the  Harlem  River.  While  we  were  on  the  river  bank,  wait- 
ing for  a  steamboat  to  be  repaired  after  it  had  broken  down, 
Mr.  Pell  told  me  that  he  had  received  a  circular  letter  from 
the  Atlantic  Cable  Company,  in  which  he  owned  ten  shares, 

10 


telling  him  that  the  company  would  issue  twenty  shares  to 
him  in  lieu  of  his  ten  shares  if  he  would  purchase  ten  addi- 
tional shares. 

"He  said  he  was  undecided  what  to  do  in  the  matter  and 
I  strongly  advised  him  to  accept  the  offer.  I  said  that  I  had 
great  faith  in  submarine  cables  and  had  often  thought  that 
a  cable  between  the  United  States  and  Cuba  and  the  West 
Indies  would  pay.  He  said  that  he  thought  so,  too,  if  one 
could  get  a  monopoly.  Then  he  told  me  that  when  he  had 
been  in  Havana  the  year  before,  the  Spanish  government 
had  granted  exclusive  fishing  rights  in  the  Spanish  waters 
along  the  Cuban  coast  within  fifty  miles  of  Havana,  to  a 
company. 

"I  jumped  up  and  began  strapping  on  my  knapsack. 

"  'Where  are  you  going?'  asked  Pell. 

"  *I  am  going  after  that  cable  concesson,'  I  said. 

"We  started  right  back  to  the  city  and  went  to  the  office 
of  Grinnell,  Minturn  &  Co.,  where  we  saw  Mr.  Robert  B. 
Minturn,  who  was  engaged  in  the  West  Indies  trade.  I  was 
enthusiastic  and  I  outlined  to  him  my  idea  for  a  Florida- 
Cuba- West  Indies  cable.  He  listened  attentively  and  told 
us  to  come  back  and  see  him  again  the  next  day.  The  next 
day  he  had  Moses  Taylor,  a  well  known  capitalist,  with  him, 
and  he  said  they  had  talked  over  the  cable  project  and  had 
concluded  to  go  into  it.     Mr.  Minturn  said: 

OFFERED  TO  PROVIDE  MONEY 

"  'We  will  furnish  money,  and  you  young  men  will  do 
all  the  work,  and  do  it  in  your  own  names.  Mr.  Taylor  and 
I  will  have  a  third  interest  each,  and  you  will  have  a  third 
interest  between  you.' 

11 


"I  started  for  Washington  that  night  to  get  a  letter  of 
introduction  from  the  Department  of  State  to  the  American 
Consul  in  Havana,  so  that  I  could  reach  the  Spanish  Gov- 
ernor General  of  Cuba  through  him.  Mr.  Seward,  the  Sec- 
retary of  State,  was  just  recovering  from  an  attempted  as- 
sassination, and  I  could  not  see  him.  But  I  obtained  a  let- 
ter from  Sir  Frederick  W.  A.  Bruce,  the  British  Ambassador 
to  the  United  States,  introducing  me  to  Captain  General 
Concha,  of  Cuba. 

"The  following  Saturday  I  started  for  Havana  with  that 
letter  and  others  from  Grinnell,  Minturn  &  Co.,  to  prominent 
commercial  houses  in  Havana.  I  obtained  an  interview  with 
the  Captain  General,  and  he  agreed  to  do  everything  in  his 
power  to  get  me  the  cable  concession.  He  sent  my  petition  to 
Madrid  and  then  advised  me  to  leave  Havana  for  the  United 
States,  to  avoid  yellow  fever.  But  I  would  not  leave  until 
I  could  get  the  answ^er  from  Madrid.  Finally,  at  the  end 
of  August,  a  mail  came,  and  in  it  was  a  copy  of  the  Diario 
Official  containing  a  decree  granting  to  Arturo  Marcoartu 
and  others  authority  to  establish  the  very  cable  connection 
for  which  I  had  petitioned. 

"I  was  disappointed,  but  not  beaten.  I  obtained  a  copy 
of  the  decree  and  started  for  New  York.  When  I  arrived 
and  showed  the  copy  to  Mr.  Minturn  and  Mr.  Taylor  they 
said  it  was  useless  to  go  further  with  the  scheme  and  with- 
drew, offering  to  pay  all  my  expenses,  which  up  to  that  time 
amounted  to  $800.  They  gave  me  letters  formally  with- 
drawing from  the  project,  and  I  undertook  further  endeav- 
ors on  my  own  responsibility. 

"The  first  thing  I  did  was  to  go  to  the  office  of  the  New 
York  Herald  and  get  publicity  for  the  royal  decree,  and  the 
trick  that  had  been  played  upon  me.     The  Herald  published 

12 


an  article  telling  about  it  and  calling  the  attention  of  the 
United  States  government  and  all  the  chambers  of  commerce 
in  the  country  to  the  dangers  of  such  a  Spanish  concession, 
showing  that  American  commerce  would  suffer  and  that  a 
Spanish  owned  cable  monopoly  would  control  the  sugar  mar- 
kets of  the  world.  The  article  clearly  stated  that  it  was  the 
duty  of  the  United  States  government  to  prohibit  the  landing 
of  such  a  Spanish  cable  on  the  coast  of  the  United  States 
unless  reciprocal  rights  for  an  American  cable  were  granted 
by  Spain. 

"Armed  with  the  New  York  Herald  and  a  copy  of  the 
royal  decree,  I  immediately  went  to  Washington  and  called 
upon  Secretary  William  H.  Seward,  who  received  me  very 
kindly.  He  listened  attentively  to  what  I  had  to  say,  read 
the  article  in  the  Herald  and  the  decree,  and  then  arose  and 
paced  up  and  down  his  office  in  the  dress  coat  which  he  al- 
ways wore.  I  told  him  that  as  the  law  then  stood  there  was 
nothing  to  prohibit  the  owners  of  a  Spanish  cable  from 
buying  an  acre  of  land  and  landing  their  cable  on  our  shores 
and  operating  it.     Mr.  Seward  turned  on  me  and  said: — 

"  'Young  man,  you  are  mistaken.  The  three  mile  limit  off 
shore  is  to  prohibit  an  enemy  from  erecting  a  battery  which 
would  be  dangerous  to  the  upland.  A  cable,  being  silent  and 
secret  in  its  operation,  is  many  times  more  dangerous  than 
an  enemy's  battery.  I  advise  you  to  lay  your  plan  before 
Congress,  get  a  bill  introduced  giving  you  the  exclusive  right 
for  the  cable  to  the  West  Indies,  and  get  it  patented,  so  that 
you  can  hold  it  for  at  least  fourteen  years.' 

BILL  PASSED  AFTER  FIGHT 

*T  followed  his  advice,  and  a  bill  was  introduced  and 
finally  passed  by  both  houses  after  a  sharp  fight  in  the 
Senate.     President  Johnson  signed  it  in  May,  1866.     I  at 

13 


once  organized  the  International  Ocean  Telegraph  Company, 
the  incorporators  under  the  laws  of  the  State  of  New  York 
being  my  friends,  Alfred  Pell,  Alexander  Hamilton,  a 
nephew  of  the  great  statesman  of  that  name ;  Oliver  K.  King, 
Maturin  L.  Delafield,  Major  General  William  F.  Smith, 
James  M.  Digges,  my  brother-in-law,  and  myself. 

"General  Smith  was  elected  president  of  the  company. 
He  went  to  Spain  and  obtained  a  royal  decree  annulling  the 
Marcoartu  concession  and  granting  one  to  us.  The  cable 
was  laid  and  was  opened  to  the  public  in  December,  1866. 
It  was  a  success  from  the  first.  The  first  tariff  was  $10 
for  a  message  of  ten  words  and  $1  for  each  additional  word." 

In  1878  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  acquired 
control  of  the  cable  to  the  West  Indies,  and  Mr.  Scrymser 
turned  his  attention  to  new  fields.  He  went  to  Mexico  and 
obtained  a  contract  from  President  Diaz  granting  to  the 
Mexican  Telegraph  Company  permission  to  establish  its 
cables  and  lines  connecting  Mexico  City,  Vera  Cruz  and 
Tampico  with  a  station  in  Texas.  The  cable  was  laid  and 
was  in  operation  within  one  year  from  the  signing  of  the 
contract  and  the  "via  Galveston"  route  was  established. 

The  Mexican  Telegraph  Company  was  so  successful  that 
Mr.  Scrymser  determined  to  lose  no  time  in  extending  the 
system  to  Central  and  South  America.  The  late  J.  Pier- 
pont  Morgan  and  some  of  his  associates  advanced  the  cap- 
ital required,  and  the  Central  and  South  American  Telegraph 
Company  was  formed  and  put  into  operation.  When  the 
company  opened  its  lines  in  1882  the  rate  between  the  United 
States  and  Buenos  Ayres  was  $7.50  a  word.  The  present 
rate  between  the  Argentine  Republic,  Chile,  Peru  and  the 
United  States  is  sixty-five  cents  a  word,  and  the  average  time 
of  transmission  between  Buenos  Ayres  and  New  York  City  is 
about  twenty  minutes.     On  occasion  it  is  much  less. 

14 


OWN  20,000  MILES  OF  LINES 

The  two  companies  now  have  more  than  20,000  miles  of 
cables  and  land  wires  under  all-American  ownership  and 
control.  The  new  cables  between  Buenos  Ayres  and  Santos 
and  Rio  de  Janeiro  will  add  2,500  more  miles  of  cables  to  their 
lines.  In  places  the  cables  of  the  Central  and  South  American 
Telegraph  Company  rest  on  the  bottom  of  the  Pacific  Ocean 
at  a  depth  of  18,000  feet,  and  the  land  wires  are  strung  over 
the  Andes  between  Valparaiso  and  Buenos  Ayres  in  places 
12,000  feet  above  sea  level,  making  a  total  measurement  of 
six  miles  from  the  bottom  of  the  ocean  to  the  top  of  the 
mountains. 

The  value  of  American-owned  cables  to  the  government 
of  the  United  States  both  in  peace  and  in  war  would  be 
difficult  to  overestimate.  The  American-owned  cable  to 
Cuba  and  the  West  Indies  was  of  supreme  importance  to 
the  United  States  during  the  war  with  Spain,  and  the  Euro- 
pean war  has  taught  the  world  the  immense  value  of  strategic 
cables.  At  this  time  all  cable  despatches  to  Brazil  from  the 
United  States  over  the  English-owned  lines,  which  must 
cross  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  Azores  or  to  England  before 
being  relayed,  are  subject  to  British  censorship.  Merchants 
in  New  York  have  great  difficulty  in  getting  despatches  to 
German  houses  in  Brazil,  or  had,  until  the  Central  and  South 
American  Cable  Company  arranged  to  forward  them  from 
Buenos  Ayres  over  South  American  government  owned 
wires  to  Rio  de  Janeiro  and  Santos.  That  service,  however, 
very  often  is  unsatisfactory,  and  its  drawbacks  will  be  en- 
tirely overcome  as  soon  as  the  company  has  its  own  cables 
from  the  south  to  Brazil. 

It  has  been  said  that  American-owned  cable  communica- 
tion with  Central  and  South  America  is  an  indispensable  ad- 
junct to  the  upholding  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  in  troublous 
times,  and  certainly  its  strategic  importance  would  be  enor- 
mous if  a  European  nation  were  to  threaten  invasion  of  a 
South  American  country  in  defiance  of  that  doctrine. 

15 


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